While staff at the former local plasma centre may be down, they’re encouraging the community to not count them out.
Canadian Blood Services informed its 28 employees that the Thunder Bay plasma centre would be closing its doors last month due to a lack of demand. Since the closure, the employees and its union OPSEU have been rallying to bring the centre back and shed light on a CBS attempt to buy for-profit plasma from the United States.
A rally was held at the Lakehad Labour Centre Thursday afternoon to show appreciation for the volunteers and donors from the staff.
“We’re still keeping up the fight. We’re worried about the blood supply in Canada,” said Kelly Borchardt, OPSEU Local 716 president and phlebotomist at the clinic before it closed. “We’re still fighting.”
April was donor and volunteer appreciation month. Borchardt said no one locally felt appreciated by CBS.
“Here in Thunder Bay we weren’t appreciated our doors were closed.”
The employees have petitions for people to sign as well as local provincial and federal politicians lobbying both levels of government to get CBS to reconsider the closure. Borchardt said for her and her members, the fact that they’re out of a job still feels surreal. No one foresaw the closure.
“Once this is over I think this is really going to hit (us),” she said.
The centre was one of the top donation centres in the country Borchardt said, a testament the donors’ dedication.
Coun. Larry Hebert had been trying to donate at the clinic every Friday. He said the staff there made him feel like family. He has been making suggestions to CBS on ways to keep donations going in the city.
“They’re just kind of rejecting that and not even giving us donors an alternate,” he said. “What about a travelling clinic? They say it’s too far, well they go to the Yukon from somewhere in Alberta it’s got to be further in fact I heard it’s twice as far to go as it is to go from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg so I’m not sure what they’re trying to prove here and I’m certainly not happy about it.”
As a Mason, Hebert said he’s surprised that organizations haven’t been more supportive of the effort to bring service back to Thunder Bay.
“I thought they’d be a little more vocal and they haven’t been so I think we’ve got to keep getting the message out and get the service back here,” he said.
Hebert has more lobbying efforts underway but wouldn’t say what they are.
“I’ve got a couple of things in the works I can’t say yet what they’re going to be.”
